Earthquake Early Warning System gains financial traction in Congress

The House Appropriations Committee has included $5 million for an Earthquake Early Warning System in their fiscal 2015 budget, marking the first time Congress has ever provided funding specifically for the project.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) secured the funds as part of the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill.

The allocation will help pay for a system of sensors along the West Coast. Using technology developed by Caltech, UC Berkeley and the University of Washington, in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), sensors trigger an alert system to notify when a tremor will be felt in a particular area, giving people time to prepare.

It will take a couple of months for the bill to make its way to President Barack Obama’s desk. If it does, the $5 million will help defray part of the $16 million cost needed to install the system and keep it functional for a year.

“We got a good boost today,” Schiff said. “We have a ways to go, but we’re off to a great start.”

For the Caltech and the other universities, it’s a major step forward.

“Caltech and its partners are very grateful that the House of Representatives is sending a strong signal of support for implementation of an earthquake early warning for the West Coast,” Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum said in a written statement. “We look forward to moving ahead with this critical technology over the next few years.”

Schiff has been the face and voice for creating the statewide system. In April, he organized 25 Congress members from California, Washington and Oregon in requesting that the Appropriations Committee fund an early earthquake warning system.

A small-scale pilot system has already been deployed in some parts of Northern and Southern California, and proved it was a good investment during earthquakes earlier this year.

“I’m convinced that once it’s up and running and we have our first major earthquake, it’s going to prove its value,” Schiff said. “It’ll allow conductors to stop trains or doctors to stop surgery. We would be negligent to wait until the big one happens and then wish we had it.”